"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." - Oscar Wilde

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Saudi king saves woman from beheading

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia personally intervened to save a local woman from execution after she was sentenced to death eight years ago for murdering a Yemeni man, newspapers in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Wednesday.

Amina bin Mohammed Dagreeri, 55, had been on the death row all that time but the execution was not carried out to give way to mediation efforts to persuade the victim’s relatives to drop their demand for her death and pardon the defendant.

Amina killed the Yemeni man, who was employed by her, following an argument at her house in the southern Saudi province of Jazan more than eight years ago. A Turkish man who helped her was sentenced to seven years in prison.

“The victim’s father, Mohammed Dareen, came with other relatives to Jazan and declared that he was dropping his demand for death punishment against Amina in response to an appeal by the Monarch,” Okaz daily said.

Under Islamic law, which is strictly enforced in conservative Saudi Arabia, a killer can be saved from the gallows and walk free if pardoned by the victim’s relatives in return for diya (blood money).

Blog Archive

Live Traffic Feed

About DPN

I oppose the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally, regardless of the method chosen to kill the condemned prisoner.
The death penalty is inherently cruel and degrading, a cruel punishment that is incompatible with human dignity.
To end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values.
The death penalty not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly to the public purse as well as in social and psychological terms.
The death penalty has not been proved to have a special deterrent effect.
It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way on grounds of race and class.
It denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation.
It prolongs the suffering of the murder victim's family and extends that suffering to the loved ones of the condemned prisoner.
It diverts resources that could be better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it.
Death Penalty News is a privately owned and privately funded NGO. It is based in Paris, France.
Your donations to Death Penalty News DO make a difference!